The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s Fills a Gap in the Local Scene
Small and mid-sized comedy venues have been nearly non-existent in Charlotte
While the announcement of a new comedy room at Duckworth’s Grill & Taphouse in January arrived without much hype or fanfare, the opening of The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s has been a compelling development for those in the city who are aware of just how starved we are for small and mid-sized comedy venues.
Currently hosting shows Thursday-Saturday nights, talent buyer James Gaghan has been rotating a blend of up-and-coming comics and established acts through the new club, with local comics emceeing shows throughout the weekend and touring acts performing as headliners.
The newly minted room, located upstairs in the restaurant’s Uptown location on North Tryon Street, currently seats 80 with plans to expand to around 150 seats in the future.
For comparison, Charlotte’s staple comedy club Comedy Zone seats around 400. Besides landing an opening slot for a larger act at Comedy Zone, most local stand-up comedians are forced to find gigs at non-traditional venues like bars, breweries and other similar spaces.
According to Gaghan, restaurateur Rob Duckworth called him in June 2024 to inquire about turning the upstairs space into a comedy room. Originally opened in 2015, the Uptown Duckworth’s location is already home to The Cellar at Duckworth’s, a high-end gastropub located below the ground-level grill and taphouse.
Gaghan has been booking comedy at venues across the country for about a decade, working in cities running from Washington D.C. to Oakland, California. He was able to help Duckworth implement his vision rather quickly, culminating in the early 2025 opening seven months later.
While acts are currently booked for three-night runs from Thursday to Saturday through Dec. 6, Gaghan said he plans to open the club up to operate five nights a week in the future.
In its first three months, the room has already hosted acts like Natalie Cuomo, Drew Dunn, Ian Edwards, Asif Ali, Felonious Monk, Sahib Singh, Malik Elassal and Ian Fidance, among others. The names could be considered mid-level acts, recognizable to those who are plugged into the comedy scene, be it through podcasts, TikTok or Instagram Reels.
Gaghan said that, while most touring headliners travel with their own opening act, he has ensured that “at a minimum” he books a local comic to host each run, also known as emceeing.
An oft-overlooked scene
Charlotte has long been somewhat of a black sheep when it comes to live entertainment from local artists, be it music, stand-up comedy or the performing arts. Despite our size, it’s generally harder to get people to engage with local and independent acts here than in cities of similar scope.
Even with larger acts it’s seen as a backwater of sorts when compared to neighboring (and smaller) cities like Raleigh and Asheville, with plenty of touring acts skipping the Queen City to book in those cities instead.
In terms of comedy venues, Goodnights Comedy Club in Raleigh has always been a well-regarded room, even on a national scale, you can hear the likes of Marc Maron, Tom Segura and other veteran comics speaking highly of the room on their respective podcasts.
To be fair, however, Maron does make stops in Charlotte regularly and Bill Burr, another one of the biggest comics in the country, called Comedy Zone one of the best comedy clubs in the country “if you can find it” during his last stop at the venue.
However, most local comedians will tell you it’s a struggle to promote the indie shows they organize around town.
Carlos Valencia, a local comedian with almost 20 years under his belt, launched the Code Red Comedy show in 2023. Queen City Nerve recognized it as the Best New Arts event in its 2024 Best in the Nest issue, but it has since been discontinued due to a lack of attendance.
“Unfortunately, it has always been a struggle to get crowds to support independent stand-up shows in Charlotte, so most of the independent showcases are very short-lived,” Valencia told us.
He clarified that Charlotte is not lacking in talent, only in support. He speculated that Raleigh has the best comedy scene in the Carolinas, with Greensboro, Wilmington, or Asheville all ranking between there and Charlotte.
Comedy Zone hosts the rare local comic here and there, but as a 400-seat room, management has to book bigger names with more draw just to keep the lights on. When those headliners bring their own opening acts, it doesn’t leave much room for other local talent.
Yet the opportunities have increased over time, according to Valencia.
“When I started doing stand-up in Charlotte, we only had one open-mic, once a week at a tiny coffee shop on Elizabeth and, on a good night, maybe six comics would sign up to perform,” he recalled. “Now there’s an open mic almost every night — in some cases several in one night — and at many of them they have to cap the number of sign-ups or they’d end up with a four-hour, 30-comedian show.”
The problem is with getting in front of a crowd that’s not made up mostly of fellow comedians waiting for their slot, said local comic Nathan Baker.
“With scenes of similar sizes like Nashville, Raleigh and Greensboro, they have clubs that put time and effort into developing and showcasing local talent,” Baker told Queen City Nerve.
“We tend to have as many or more open mics than those cities but fewer opportunities to open for big name comics in ‘real’ rooms — rooms made for the express purpose of listening to comedy, not a bar where no one’s expecting 20 open mic’ers to bomb and/or crowd-work their girlfriends,” he continued. “The Charlotte scene, by comparison, is still in its infancy.”
Filling the gaps
According to another local comic, Kaya Allyn, the lack of local infrastructure has inspired a DIY scene that’s become accustomed to organizing shows on the fly and working together to lift one another up.
“Charlotte has a ton of comedic talent, but not the same level of infrastructure you’ll find in places like Austin or Raleigh. We don’t have the same volume of clubs or consistent venues to build momentum, but what we do have is a grassroots scene that’s scrappy, collaborative, and creative as hell.”
Read more: Crown Station Serves as an Incubator for Charlotte’s Underground Comics
Valencia speculated that most people in Charlotte think stand-up comedy only happens at mainstream venues like Comedy Zone, Ovens Auditorium or Blumenthal Performing Arts venues but are oblivious to the many small independent shows happening all over the city in breweries, music venues, bars and other spaces.
Some smaller comedy shows have seen success, proving that there is a demand for comedy minus the big names if you can just get the word out. Some regular shows that regularly see good attendance include The 704 Comedy Room at Resident Culture in South End; Allyn’s Bold and Beautiful Comedy Showcase; and Don’t Tell Comedy shows, pop-ups held throughout the country, including in Charlotte, that often feature local comics.
Having a new venue like The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s will help in building a base for performers where crowds will come to search out comedy rather than run into it.
“We have a lot of bars and breweries willing to try shows but very few dedicated or comedy-first spaces,” said Allyn. “And when we do get traction somewhere, it’s not always sustainable; either the venue pivots or the support dries up. We need more venues that invest in comedy long-term, not just treat it as background noise.”
“We need more rooms like Duckworth’s and more opportunities for local comics to showcase themselves,” added Baker. “This’ll bring more people in and hopefully keep them here instead of having homegrown talent run off to the greener pastures of New York, Chicago and Austin.”
The trio of local comics agreed that an 80-seat venue is a perfect size to begin filling a gap in Charlotte’s comedy scene. Valencia remembers working regularly at a similar-sized club called Laughing Skull Lounge when he lived in Atlanta, watching up-and-coming touring acts like John Mulaney come through long before they were able to book larger venues.
“That’s a sweet spot — intimate enough for experimental shows, big enough for showcases,” said Allyn. “A room like that gives comics a chance to feel what it’s like to kill in front of a real crowd and it can help audiences take local comedy more seriously.”
Read more: Four Women of Charlotte Comedy Reflect on the Scene (2022)
Gaghan said he has plans to launch an open mic in The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s during the second half of the year, which will give local comics another room to try out material and potentially book emcee gigs and opening spots at the venue.
“I believe that this space is going to bring in a lot of talent that is going to surprise some people, along with a long-term plan of launching local-focused shows once we are able to establish ourselves more,” he told Queen City Nerve. “We are very fortunate to be able to add to the current scene as a compliment to what already exists.”
You can find all upcoming shows booked for The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s on the venue’s website. Still slated for this month is Ivy Wolk (April 17-19) and Gus Constantellis (April 24-26).
